Chapter 51 – Endless Sermon

"The world was endless."

Those are the first words spoken by the Star Gods when they looked upon this endless world. 

A world with endless possibilities. A world with endless powers, forms, and opportunities to be had. An endless world in which you can become anything and everything you wanted. 

The Star Gods look upon this world with great interest.

And inhabiting this endless world is the manifestation of that endless ethos. 

Creatures, things, concepts... These are entities with no physical form but they sometimes do, with no powers but also infinite powers as well, they change their forms at will, and could not be described to be alive or dead, as seemingly they choose if they want to live or not. 

They sometimes have many different forms with one consciousness but also one form with many consciousness. They are immortal, invincible, indestructible, unstoppable. These are the reigning rulers of Endless. 

But they have no soul, no feelings, no emotions. They do not have a drive, an ambition. 

Their actions are forever mysterious and nonsensical. Their actions are not driven by a goal, logic and reason, an emotion, a desire, a feeling, or even their base instincts. They are drivdn by nothing. Only acting and doing and moving for the sake of it. 

And so these creatures are of course neither good nor evil, they do not have a concept like that. They would create something only to immediately destroy it and vice versa.

Honestly, in terms of their power there are no one else above them, even the gods. But as a creature living in this world they are worst than a worm, living without meaning. They are all-powerful beings but without a soul. 

They go by many names but also none, as they existed before any of us and even before concepts like time. They are called angels and the demons claim their descent from them. 

The first primordial inhabitants of this endless world, the Daemons. 

Upon seeing the world stagnant and void of meaning by the Daemons, the Star Gods finally acted to stop their wanton destruction. The stars had begun to shine. 

The world was given meaning. 

The Star Gods are one of the few living entities that bore witness to the Daemons. They are all-powerful beings that inhabit the night sky as they watch and travel to many worlds. Their powers could only make them gods but unlike the gods of today, they have no names, no structures dedicated to them, no followers and no adherents. Only one thing, they were the ones that ended the stagnant reign of the Daemons. 

That begun with the brightest of the Star Gods falling first. He was the one that had first spoken about this world, which we now call as Endless, thanks to him. 

The long light that was emitted as he was falling down was noticed by both the Star Gods and the Daemons. 

So he landed, his landfall sending a shockwave of power and energy so strong that every Daemon began to think for the first time when they looked where that power came from. 

Creating a physical form in which he could move, he stood over the barren world of Endless, he looks on with one goal in mind. Seeing the untapped potential of this world he proclaimed that he will forge this world for the better, and from the remaining fragments of his Star God form he created the first tool and weapon of this world to do just that. The obsidian hammer; Starfallen, the guiding way of endless light. 

Of course the Daemons did not take kindly to the new visitor and tried to struck him down. They attacked him senselessly from all sides with no stop but he repelled them all and began his journey to the highest peak of Endless.

It took him several years and non-stop attacks from the Daemons but he finally made it. The highest peak in Endless, soon to be known by the events that happened that day. 

Standing atop that peak he thrusted Starfallen up into the night sky and shouted one word.

{Starfall!} 

It was the first magical spell ever castes on Endless. He created a blinding light within the obsidian hammer to which he struck the very first swing upon the mountain now known as the legendary Starfall Mountain, causing a great tremor upon the world. Cracks of light stretched out for many miles, it served as a giant lighthouse for the rest of the Star Gods to come to land. 

So they did, and the Stars Gods begun to move, coming down from the skies they would land upon the world of Endless. Thus signalling the beginning of the end of the era of the Daemons and the beginning of the era of the stars, when the gods and its equivalence had walked upon the earth.

And the first of the Star Gods to land upon Endless, the one that had struck Starfallen upon the world, his original name is now long forgotten. 

He was known by many titles: the Forgebringer, the Ancestor, the First of the First, the Original Hero, the Golemancer, and many more. 

But he is most well known by the future generations of Endless by the eventual form he became after he lets go of his powers as a Star God.

Greigor Blackhammer. 

The ancestors of all dwarves. The great hammer they call him. But his dwarven form is a far cry from his Star God form, as he is but a blinding light shaped like a person right now. 

Remember this, many of the Star God's forms are very different from the forms they will take in the future, except for the elves but that will be for later. 

It was not only the Star Gods that noticed the casting of Starfall though. The Daemons noticed them as well. 

But there was one more. 

A sphere of magic had suddenly formed around Greigor and Mount Starfall. It was the purest form of magic that could not be wielded by any mortals. Due to Greigor striking Starfallen down using his own magical powers, it attracted a dormant force on Endless to him, magic. 

Reacting to the magical powers of Greigor with great interest, the swarming mass of magical power reacted and combined and eventually created a form to interact with Greigor. It's interest peaked as she saw something interesting for once. So it created a form in which to give itself life. That form is...

Angieflora. 

The ancestors of all elves. Mother of All Elves, the Living Goddess, Nature's Gift to Endless, the Root of Magic, and many more. Endless's magic which fueled the power of the Daemons had manifested itself upon the world. 

Although the Daemons were the only lifeform in Endless, the fundamental forces of Endless were still not tasked to govern the world, so in certain circumstances they could manifest themselves upon this world.

And from the appearance she manifested into is similar to what her current form looked like. With the most striking difference being that her body is all ethereal with no physical form to touch. 

Although Greigor and Angieflora were to be the ancestors of the dwarves and elves respectively, their form around this time were too powerful and unstable to even be called an elf or a dwarf. And they are physically too god-like to have the physical capabilities to create a child... 

Physically that is. 

Magically, as the feelings between these two gods meeting for the first time was intense. So intense that through sheer force of will and magical powers, they created a lifeform that was created by the two mixing their magical powers to create a physical manifestation of their love.

It was quite literally love at first sight.

Their thoughts of being thankful to the world for having them meet had created a whole new being. Taking its Endless origins from its mother and its physical form from its father. The being was the first to be born with a soul from two other beings. The first mortal... 

The first man.

But it was too early for that as the Daemons had come to kill them. Greigor and Angieflora, due to them creating this child, were exhausted as they used their powers to create the child. 

The child meanwhile was a mere fetus at this time, so without the constant supply of magic from the parents it would become unstable and even die. 

But they still tried.  

Greigor and Angieflora were struggling to both keep the Daemons at bay and protecting and supplying their child. They would have to either leave to child to fight them head on or be handicapped and be defeated by the Daemons. The choice is clear and regrettable. Leave the child behind... 

But as they made up their minds,  it was the moment no one knew, even the two gods, they did not know if this event was a coincidence or if it was fate. 

But at that moment...

A fallen Star God had come to that mountain at the perfect time and hit the child. The child should be dead from a star hitting it but it was not, the Star God and the infant fused together to become one. A body of a mortal and the power of a god into one being. 

The immediate aftermath was a massive explosion and killing all the Daemons hit by it. 

Greigor and Angieflora meanwhile were not affected by the explosion. What they saw is the infant, growing into a small child in their very eyes as he looks at its parents one more time before using magic to leave by leaping though the air. 

With that child being the very first man, it is of course the ancestor of all humans. Its tales are legendary and I would like to talk about how one of its descendants, Kurumi, had managed to inherent the Star God that was within her ancestor in the future but that's for another day. 

Anyways, although a very strange meeting between the two, Greigor and Angieflora did work together to eliminate the Daemons in Endless while also looking for that child.

Along the way many more Star Gods had fallen to Endless to help the two and develop the world. These include many ancestors of the known races today like the beastmen, monsters, and the spirits and undead, the dragons, as well as the Star Gods that had begun their control of the fundamental forces like gravity and time and the elements that make up the world like earth, air, fire, and water. 

Most of those powers came from the Daemons, as the Star Gods took those powers and created something out of it. As the Daemons had impractical powers stitched together it was better for the Star Gods to use it. 

Because of the Star Gods and eventually the races they would create, the Daemons died off one by one over the millennia of war that they and the Star Gods had waged over. 

For that millennia the world begun to change, many irrationalities caused by the Daemons were gone, replaced with order. The world became more alive and many weak creatures started popping up. It's becoming more and more recognizable. 

At the end of this millennia the first man, the child of Angieflora and Greigor, who had been killing many Daemons himself, died. Leaving behind... Two children, I think. Adam and Eve, and their many children to create the first humans. 

Oh I remember, there was Lilith as well. But I don't really know a lot about him, or her? I don't know.

At the same time many of the Star Gods have decided to willingly end their mortal lives to return to godhood. Like the ancestor of the beastmen for instance, who had given a part of himself to his descendants that split off and become many of the tribes e know today. 

Although there wer two that did not leave this world and instead given up their status as Gods for the development of this world. 

Around this time Greigor was not a blinding light shaped like a person anymore, after a millennia of killing Daemons and developing the world of Endless, he gave up most of his powers as a Star God. He was tall and looked like a human but with long earlobes. He did not have the beard of the dwarves yet. 

Angieflora firmly had a physical body by now, only being ethereal on her hair. By having a physical body she could now, unlike the first time around, give birth without any need of exhausting her magic. 

Atop Mt. Starfall, the remaining of the Star Gods and the new descendants of the stars that had passed away gathered to witness the birth of the Mother Elf and the Great Hammer's children. When Greigor and Angieflora came out, the gods were excited to see who the two of them would hold their child. But when they came out of the tent, both of them did, Angie had given birth to twins, each of them holding one child in their arms. 

The Gods and the Demigods roared and clamored in celebration. To see it was two new races were birthed from the two. It was a day of happiness. 

But not for long. As you can see among them was a Daemon. Whom at this point was assumed that they were finally extinct. 

They were except for this one, the last of the Daemons. 

He roared and he screamed in anger as he detested the happy cheering of the ones that killed its kin. The very last of the Daemons, and very different from what they were at the start, this Daemon had one ambition; revenge, and one emotion; anger. Anger for the Star Gods who had killed its kin and stole their powers against them. 

It grew in size, bigger and bigger, until it was comparable to Mt. Starfall itself. 

Of course the Star Gods and the descendants battled the Daemon. But they were too slow and... 

With one blow using his fist...

He split the Starfall Mountain in half, with such force that there was a gigantic crack in the middle stretching the whole mountain. 

Fortunately many of the Gods managed to escape with only a few that fell, including... 

"Greigor!"

The Mother Elf Angieflora cried out as she saw her husband, along with her child he's holding, fall down through the depths of that crack and before she could even get him. 

The Daemon using both of his fists,

SLAM! 

He punched both sides of the cracked mountain together but the force of which he hit it had caused the mountain too much it could handle and so, it collapsed.

The celebration for the wedding of the two supreme beings had ended in a desperate fight against the last Daemon. Angieflora unleashed her full magical might towards the Daemon, along with everyone else fighting the Daemon was slowly pushed back but due to their situation it was a struggle. 

Until another miracle happened. 

Like what happened with the first man, a Fallen Star had come down once more...and hit the Daemon right in its face. 

Everyone was shocked to see this, not only that the Daemon was defeated like that but also the appearance of a Star God. Which at this point had not appeared for centuries, so this may be the last and youngest of the Star Gods. 

But their shock immediately turned to despair as they saw that the bright Star God is being wrapped around the darkness of the Daemon. It was fusing with the Star God. 

Everyone panicked and tried to pull them out but it was too late. An explosion of darkness appeared and unlike the first one with first mortal, the explosion was dark and not kind to the rest of the gods. The explosion firmly destroyed the Starfall Mountain and what remains of the Daemon is a black, humanoid-shaped being of darkness. 

The first of the modern demons.

With its soul being that of the youngest and last of the Star Gods and body being that of the last of the Daemons. It was a young but terrifying existence.

Seeing such a creature everyone immediately attacked it but it quickly escaped before anyone got close to it. 

The aftermath of this event was disastrous. Due to them being still labeled as Gods and Demigods, things such as falling to death mean nothing to them. But the psychological damage was intense. Many were injured in the fight against the Daemon and some died, and the others grimaced as they saw the birth of a new race of darkness, a being that was created from one of them. But there one that was the worst off among them all. 

"Mama...?"

The child within her arms had spoken. Normally this would have been a tremendous occasion but it was one filled with sadness as the child has said those words because of the tears falling down its mother. 

Angieflora for the first time has shed tears. Not only did the love of her life separated from her by but also their other child as well. 

It was supposed to be the greatest moment of their lives. Marriage and the birth of their two children, but it ended with tragedy. 

But not all hope was lost. 

As ground that felt her tears was getting more wet. Her crying suddenly stopped when she heard a tremor from the ground. She saw the rocky ground that was all made of stone from the mountain slowly turned into nutrient rich soil and as her tears keep falling. The child she had on her arms fell and subconsciously used magic to touch the wet ground and then...

Angieflora saw something rise up. 

A sapling. 

From the tremor earlier she realized something. There was only one thing that could have caused that tremor. It was the obsidian hammer, Starfallen. 

It means that,

"He's alive!"

Greigor was still alive, but now trapped underground. 

Even so he must have felt her grief and so he made a strike on his mighty hammer to signal to her he was still alive. Inadvertently turning the ground encircling the range of Starfallen, into suitable soil in which from Angieflora's magic-dense tears and the new magic of her child, created the very first plant upon Endless. 

The aftermath of this event can be felt all over the world. Greigor using the last of Starfallen's power turned the ground into fertile soil in which using Angieflora's water magic and the new magic created by her children. It was a new element called nature and has been spreading far and wide ever since. 

That sapling grew into the first of the World Trees. With this one having five main branches out from its trunk, its name being the Star Tree. 

The children of the child that Angieflora had within her arms were a new race now known as the elves. With many cousins of the elves such as the fairies, pixies, and sprites. They are the spreaders of nature, as they all have the natural affinity to it.

Angieflora herself decided after that day, she finally broke free from the fundamental force of magic. She will neither be the ruler nor controlling the magic on Endless, instead fully becoming the mother and queen of the elven race as she continues to develop the world.

Greigor meanwhile was alive, but due to the fall that even magic could not fully negate, his spine was broken since he was trying to protect the child in his arms using his own body as a cusion.

When he finally healed up, his spine has been shortened and so he was now much shorter than what he once was. 

The new world he was in was dark, so even with fire magic he could not look for a place to shave so he grew a beard. 

And then he used his remaining God-like powers to strike the earth one last time. To tell Angie that he was alive before the light on the obsidian hammer finally faded. Becoming the hammer now known by the dwarves as his namesake, Greigor Blackhammer. 

Speaking of the dwarves, now that Greigor was stuck underground, he now has to adapt living in the caves and most importantly, mining. The twin child that Greigor has with him grew up in the caves and became a whole new race, the dwarves.

One of the Gods that also fell with him was the ancestor of the golems. And the two of them quickly became friends with Greigor becoming known as the Golemancer by the golems. 

There were many races that fell with him that became allies with the dwarves but that is the most famous one. 

Elves continue to bring the world nature and life while the dwarves became the first civilization on Endless, creating the first cities underground, with the cave that Greigor had fallen in becoming the first great dwarven fortress. 

And the beastmen also conquered a lot and became fierce warriors with their special abilities and traits.

And in the middle is the humans, the oldest and by far the most numerous of the mortal beings on Endless and technically the older sibling of the twin races. Would they learn magic from the elves or advance their knowledge from the dwarves? Maybe even balance the two together. Who knows, this world is Endless after all, with Endless potential in each one of us. 

Overall, it would be thousands of years later that the elves and the dwarves would meet once again. And that is a story I will tell another day. 

Thank you.

•••

My mother Marea bows her head to the crowd that was listening to her story. 

"..."

There was silence. 

"......"

There were more silence. 

And then...

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! 

Everybody stood up and applauded my mother. 

"Marvelous!"

"Wow!"

"What a great tale!"

"Tell us more!"

They were praising her for telling them such a story. 

Meanwhile, as for me. "Good job mother." I also stood up and beside me were the kids, shouting and clapping as well. I can even see them looking at their ears and specifically, "How do you feel right now little Lifi?"

Lifi looked a little surprised when I asked her that. "Well you see..." she told me. "If what Mrs. Marea says is true then..." and looking at me. "I wanna meet this Angieflora!" she said. 

I chuckled and told her. "I dunno little Lifi, she's an elf like you but I dunno where she's at." upon saying this I thought. [You're out there somewhere Angie.] I will find her. 

After patting her head too much I let go and just said. "But I'll make sure you'll see what she looks like." that's a promise. 

I look to see the audience once more, while there was definitely still some clapping, I could see those that were not in a happy mood right now. [A couple of guys with cloaks huh...] some with white robes talking among themselves and others with grey robes leaving in a hurry. [I'm guessing some religious nuts were too shock because of this.] if they come after my mother I will have to take care of them. 

And then I look at the beautiful elf in the podium, my mother. "Thank you everyone." she finally spoke after most of the clapping was gone. "It was legends passed down from my mother, so I hope you enjoyed them today." she told everyone. 

[Very clever mother.] I thought with a smirk. 

[Those legends were the era of the gods told by the Endless Book.] those 'legends' were obviously told by Angie herself, so it's less about legends and myths than about her telling a past memory. 

[I still remember those days.] the era of the gods were the alpha testing period of Endless. I wasn't one of the original Star Gods that first landed on Endless though, rather the first descendents of the Star Gods. With a character that wasn't my own. 

[To this day I'm still impressed of how the writers turned that messy era into a real story.] I thought.

The Daemons were basically prototype monsters and demons. They were there to test the limits of the game and we're incredibly powerful and OP by modern Endless standards. [I fought a few of them before they were gone.] when I joined they were already becoming extinct so yeah. The Star Gods are OP too.

The Star Gods were one the first players on Endless, given to a select few people to play under an NDA. Their stats were intentionally powerful as well to test the limits of players. [The use of the Star Gods as well and their first descendants were so strict with them that I wasn't even allowed to customize my character when I first joined.] with later on in the beta nerfing them with the reason of giving their powers to the world as the cause.

[I remember asking the devs to kill me in the lore so I could make a more minor character with more freedom.] and that was the creation of Morus. One of the many elves living in the Star Tree. [Even so I still became important enough just before the release of the game for then to ask me to join their Endless Book Program and frustrated when I refused.] I think they made my lore less important because of it which I find very amusing. 

But back to mother. [But still...] it was quite surprising for my mother to tell that story to the people that are in attendance. [But I don't hate it though.] I really hate secrets and I don't like the trope of not having the general public know the events of things. [The main ethos of Endless is the fact you can be anything and anyone you want if you work hard enough.]

Even the lore has justification why everyone was human at the start during the launch of the game. 

"Morus...?" Lifi beside me looks at me worryingly as I was silent for a while now. 

"Oops, sorry Lifi, was just thinking of things." scratching my head. [Dang that's one of the longest times I was talking to myself.] I need to stop giving myself expositions. [But it's really important stuff!] I shook my head. 

Anyways, I checked the rest of the kids. 

"Wow... I guess I like being human after all." Resyelin said with her friends encouraging her. 

"I hope I can be a man like Greigor as well." Lukk clutches his palms. 

"Hahaha look at my earlobes maybe I'm a dwarf!" Osin shouted. 

"Your more like a gnome Osin!" the kid named Wernard said. 

"At least I ain't a goblin like you!" the kid named Yappi replied back. 

"What did you say?!" and the two bicker. 

I look back at mother and thought. [Nice job including most of the races mother.] in the lore the humans weren't prominently featured during some parts of the story. But due to the audience being mostly humans she decided to prominently feature them a lot. 

And now both me and my mother made eye contact. 

She smiled and looking at the rest of the crowd once more. "Everyone." and everyone focused in on her. "As a final gesture of my gratitude to this elven temple, which may turn into a Kurumist church soon. I decided to do one last thing, here." and she pointed up her index finger, which glowed in a bright green. 

Everyone looked closely at that glowing finger as she turns around and faces the old tree. Upon touching it. 

"""Whoa!"""

Everyone looked at the tree in surprise.

"It's glowing!"

The old, fragile tree is glowing brightly, and even from a human eyes can see that it's vitality is coming back. 

"Amazing!"

"She's a saint!"

While I check everyone's reaction. [Yup, some of the elves in attendance even fainted.] that was just how amazing it was to see the tree glow like in the fairytales. 

But that's not all, this is just the beginning. [I can see what she's doing.] on the bark where her fingers pointing to. 

There are lines forming. Slowly forming into the figure of a person, with king hair and— "I knew it!" I shouted and with a laugh afterwards. "My mother's a mad woman, she's really doing it." she even did it before I opened my store. 

My mother looking satisfied. "Done." stops touching the tree but it still glowed. {"Oh great oak, may the vintage of the Mother Elf please be reside in your bark."} after a while.... 

The glow on the tree concentrated on the spot where the glowing lines were made, and the wood itself started to transform.

"A-amazing!"

"What is this!"

"Oh god!"

Looking at the reactions of everyone, many of whom are now prostrating on their knees as the wood of the tree slowly make out the sketch. 

Then as the figure was completed, "Yup, it's definitely her." I look at the completed sculpt. 

"Everyone." my mother stands beside the completed statue. "It was very unfortunate to not see the Mother Elf worshipped here for no apparent reason, so thanks to Sister Doriayn's approval I was able to at least for a little bit, let the people of this city know the existence of the Mother Elf, Angieflora." and then she bowed. 

It was a beautiful figure of my friend Angie, looking all majestic in her perfectly made wooden culture. It is of the highest quality. 

And then... 

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! 

"Hell yeah!"

"I'll definitely be going here from now on!"

"Shit! This'll be turned into a church right?!"

"Even if I am a human where can I worship this beautiful deity!"

"Oh...as an elf I am ashamed to not have prayed to my ancestor before!"

Everyone was extremely positive with the result. 

"So pretty..."

"I wanna be a priestess to the Mother Elf."

"Where can I sign up!"

Of course the children love it. 

I can only smile at this result. 

And my mother's final words are of course, "Come to our shop when it opens soon." very clever.

•••

"Shall we go now mother?"

"Of course, dear."

After the sermon we finally decide to go back. 

"....Fine, good bye Morus." Doriayn reluctantly waves goodbye while Ayna, "See you soon Morus." with a smile she waves goodbye as well. 

"Bye bye!"

"Let's play again!"

"I want those candies again soon!"

"I wanna hear your stories again Mrs. Marea!"

The kids wave their goodbyes as well. 

"Yeah, I'll visit here often!" I told them before looking forward and head back, to the Starting Point Inn. 

...

"Damn it." I heard someone behind me say. 

"How can I report this to them."

...On this day, while many at the time many consider the tall and beautiful elf's stories to be entertaining fiction at best. There's no denying that it was convincing, and later on with some new discoveries, this marks the day where the wheels on many people's view on the world turned and began to change. 

Chaaruzu_Corner

Heya guys! 5211 words in total. Wow that's a lot, it's not my longest chapter but the longest one out of the chapters I made recently lol. But now well I guess I realized something whilst writing this chapter. And about my story in general. 

For me I don't really consider this story to be a battle centric story, I want to create a world in which my characters can have fun talking to each other and interacting. That's probably why even if my writing style makes my story slower, I wouldn't want to change it because it's so fun writing how my characters would talk. Another thing, I realized that this story so far has a lot of exposition dumps. And well for me I don't find it a bad thing, if I want to  tell the lore why not tell it with the people of the story knowing not just you? That's why I made the sermon thing in the first place, I don't like how things are always explained to the reader and not the people of the story so yeah. 

But anyways, finally some knowledge to give you upon the start of Endless, I hope you like it ^^ see ya next chapter :P :D :3